Indian Love Call; Rose Marie; The Mounties; March of the Grenadiers;
Beyond the Blue Horizon; Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life; Im Falling in Love
With Someone; Tramp, Tramp, Tramp Along the Highway; Dear, When I Met You;
One Hour With You; At the Balalaika; Isnt It Romantic?: Vilja;
Toreadors Song; Waltz Aria; Farewell to Dreams; Will You Remember?;
Sun-up to Sundown; One Kiss; Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise; Lover, Come
Back to Me; Smilin Through

Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life; When I Grow Too Old to Dream; Dusty Road;
Through the Years; Smilin Through; At Dawning; Trees; Thy Beaming Eyes;
The Hills of Home; Sylvia; Señorita; Who Are We To Say; Kashmiri Song;
Ride, Cossack, Ride; Stout-Hearted Men; Wanting You; Dear Little Café;
Tokay; I Married an Angel; Strange Music; Without a Song; Oh, What A Beautiful
Mornin; Nearer and Dearer; Love is the Time; In the Still of the
Night.

I have to confess to a nostalgic affection for the singing of Jeanette MacDonald
and Nelson Eddy. Rose Marie was the first film I ever saw - in the
company of my parents when I was about five. (I hasten to add that I saw
it during one of its frequent re-releases in the early 1940s!) Eddy and MacDonald
were rudely known in some quarters as The Singing Capon and the Iron Butterfly
but this does the very popular duo that made eight films together, most of
which swelled MGMs coffers, a grave injustice.

Jeanette MacDonald (1903- 1965), with that lovely shock of red hair (only
seen in her later colour films), and big toothy smile, had a silvery light
lyric soprano voice which was very much of its era. Her style of delivery,
timbre and pitch is dated now. Before she teamed with Eddy she had appeared
in a number of successful Hollywood musicals for Paramount directed by the
great Arthur Lubitsch and Mamoulian opposite Maurice Chevalier. In the When
Im Calling You album (released in 1994), there are two songs from this
era: "March of the Grenadiers" (The Love Parade) and "Beyond the Blue
Horizon" (Monte Carlo).

Nelson Eddy (1901-1967) arrived in Hollywood in the wake of a very successful
career on commercial radio. He had also sung art songs and had appeared in
opera including works by Richard Strauss and Berg. Writing about him in the
new Through the Years CD just released, Peter Dempsey says: " without
celluloid, his rating would have been less universal for, while certainly
stylish, virile and appealing and a self-critical artist, in voice and range
Nelson was no Richard Bonelli, no John Charles Thomas nor (more particularly)
a Lawrence Tibbett, the long-resident star of the New York Met who had preceded
him as a baritone screen-idol. That he early realised certain limitations
in no way diminishes his achievement. Rather, it is to his credit for, despite
the uniform volume and restricted top register, the fixed "forward", slightly
nasal production and comfortably predictable colour, the melodious, forthright,
manly sincerity of Eddys ballad-singing can never be underrated.

The first 1994 album includes the immortal duet the Indian Love Call (When
Im Calling You) from Rose Marie plus MacDonald and Eddy singing
together in "Ah Sweet Mystery of Life" from Naughty Marietta and "Will
You Remember" from Maytime. The 22 numbers that comprise this first
album also include many popular MacDonald solos including: "Dear When I met
You", "One Kiss" from The NewMoon and Vilja from The Merry
Widow. Eddy thrills with his renderings of "Rose Marie", "At the Balalaika"
from Balalaika, and "Lover, Come Back to Me" from The New Moon
etc.

The new album comprises 25 Nelson Eddy solos ranging from the stirring "Ride
Cossack, Ride", "Stout-Hearted Men" from The New Moon and "Tokay"
from "Bitter Sweet" to the romantic "Smilin Through" and "Wanting You"
from The New Moon, andCole Porters "In the Still of
the Night." One or two art songs are included including Amy
Woodforde-Findons, Kashmiri Love Song and songs from shows in which
Eddy did not appear including "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" from
Oklahoma.